The Two Confessions by John Whitbourn (good books to read for adults .TXT) 📕

The carry-tub had been up and downthe now enlarged and pinioned main shaft - 'like a whore's drawers', asSamuel put it when his temper ran out - until the midday sun shone directlyoverhead. Come lunchtime, Trevan was still none the wiser and impatience gotput into words.

Hecouldn't emulate the Wizard and just levitate down to the next port of call.Mere mortals had to board the tub and order its descent, jerking gracelesslyratchet by ratchet till his companion's helmet-candle came back into view. Theman was standing on thin air, his great bulk making it seem all the moreincongruous, beside the lip of another transverse tunnel.

‘Youdidn't need to do that,’ Samuel reproved him, in the gentlest manner he knew.‘You could have come down with me.’

‘I'come down' enough in your company as it is.’ The Wizard wasn't reallyregarding Trevan or his question, but musing dreamily to himself. ‘You depressmy spirits, maggot of Mammon, forever snuffling around after gain. What isthe Army thinking of in servicing you? How apt it is you must writhemaggot-style round these tunnels pursuing mere gold.’

Beingused to abuse on these grounds made it easier for Samuel to hold his tongue.All the stuff about 'and you - and your mother!' was said only in theprivacy of thought.

‘Isthere a blockage here too?’ he asked instead.

TheWizard looked into the black mouth of the tunnel and tilted his head as thoughseeking a scent.

‘Thereis. One more of the same. Alive - as I said before. I will show you.’

Hetrod on nothingness till it was exchanged for the firmer support of the tunnelfloor. Samuel jumped across to join him. Halfway there he wondered if, shouldhe fall, the Wizard would swoop to catch him. It seemed doubtful.

‘Twentypaces on,’ the Wizard confided, again twitching his nostrils as he pluckedknowledge from the dark. ‘The dampness ceases and there is something perverse.’

'Then you and it belong together’ thought Samuel - but said nothing. Hefollowed in the Wizard's confident footsteps.

‘Here.’He signalled that Trevan should halt. ‘Right here. Even your grosssensitivities should be able to detect it.’

Samuelignored that insult also. Even if he were as attuned as a brick his eyes wouldstill have marked the sudden change, candlelight or no. Damp, slick wallsbecame dry-as-bone rock. Something had long held the waters at bay from thatsharply delineated line.

Butthat was not all. Close to, the air was both charged and sluggish, resistant toany passage through. A meaty aroma oozed out when the vicinity was disturbed bytheir arrival.

‘Yes,I perceive it,’ Samuel told him. ‘Now you explain it to me.’

TheWizard looked at him - or rather through him to some further and moreinteresting point. Trevan had observed before the famous lack of focus inmagicians' eyes. He found it more disconcerting than any straightforwardintimidation. Always, at the back of your mind, there was the persistent talethat wizards read men thoughts like open books. Samuel tested the theory withheartfelt murderous notions but the magician showed no signs of perception.

‘Itis alive...,’ the man repeated.

‘Yeah,we've had that already.’

‘...though more as an... idea than a being. It is... pervasive and half awake.’

‘Lovely.What shall we do about it?’

‘Idon't...,’ - he'd been going to say 'care', Samuel was sure of it -‘…know. Isn't that up to you?’

‘Youradvice is sought. That is why you were brought from-....’

‘Llanthony;yes,’ said the Wizard. ‘I saw bad things there. Mott had me torture people,even though I protested it was illegal. No, here is preferable even if you arenearby. I prefer to linger in this place. Yes, I'll advise you. What do youpropose to do?’

Samuellooked down the tunnel into the lack of light or welcome.

‘Presson.’

‘Surprise,surprise. Then I will rupture the membrane for you. I know I can penetrate ordestroy it.’

‘It'sweak then?’ Samuel liked that: both a necessary question and retaliation forall the insults. The Wizard didn't even notice.

‘Notweak but old; old and neglected and never tested. This is an ancient cobwebdrained of its youthful virility.’

‘Andif it's alive like you say, will the breach be noticed?’

‘Probably.I think it sees us even now.’

Samueldidn't appreciate that thought - as entirely intended. He wasn't able toprevent the resulting nervous glance.

‘We'llproceed even so,’ he said. Then: ‘No! Not yet!’

Hehad to shout that, for the magician had already stretched out his arm to probethe mystery.

‘Patience,Wizard, patience. We'll do it when we're prepared and fitted.’

Thechubby arm was slowly, reluctantly, withdrawn.

‘Asyou wish, businessman. What you say goes….’

Theywalked back together, the Wizard without a second glance, Samuel with more thanhalf his attention to the unguarded rear.

‘Look!’

He'dskilfully got Trevan to such a pitch that the urgent suggestion made even himjump to comply. Magicians had ways of introducing 'mundanes' to the borderlandsof their own uncanny world, thereby to master them.

‘What?What is it?’

TheWizard pointed.

‘Thereis old-life here - in the rock. Your money-grubbing has stumbled over beauty.See?’

Therewere indeed non-random forms within the wall. Samuel looked and thought herecognised some curled shell-shape protruding its back.

‘Pre-Flooddemons,’ he said. He knew of, if not about, them. Mr Farncombe had one as apaperweight on his desk, a present from a relative in Lyme Regis.

‘Antediluvian,but not demonic,’ the Wizard corrected him, more gently than hitherto. ‘Theyare innocent beasts frozen into stone by the drip, drip, drip of time.Sometimes one finds the remains of dragons; huge monsters' bones and terrifyingteeth. Hedgerow spell-casters prize and powder them for their potions.’

‘Fascinating.’

‘Actuallyit is, Mr Trevan; but you rightly discern there is no sordid profitin them. Some afflicted men are oblivious to the marvels strewn by God for ourdelectation. As the prophet Jeremiah and other sundry scripture reminds us:there are none so blind as those who will not see. Meanwhile, let usreturn to the light.’

Samuelwasn't going to argue with that, but he'd had enough of the man and his contempt.The tally between them was still lamentably one-sided.

‘What,so soon?’ he mocked. ‘I thought you were mad keen to forge ahead?’

Onceagain the Wizard 'honoured' him by actually turning his head to speak. The toesof his huge army boots protruded over the tunnel's lip and the abyss below.

‘Oh,but I am. It will be wonderful. You don't know the half of what I have sensedhere.’

Trevanbristled. ‘Do I not, sorcerer?’

‘No.My soul feels in places you do not have.